Bill Shaw wrote:
> LOL!
>
> You aren't likely to get any disagreement on that but they guy wants
> to make a living here. If anything is a sure bet it's someone with
> Windows that will pay over and over for a system cleanup.
Ugh. That kind of thinking is disturbing. I rarely get second calls for
"cleaning" Windows boxes (probably because I give them such a hard time
the first visit ;)
If you load up a PC with AdAware, Microsoft Anti-Spyware, AVG, ClamAV,
XP SP2 firewalling, Microsoft Updates, Firefox, and anything else you
can while extolling on the user the virtues of your Mac and Linux
desktops that never have this problem, it's amazing how rarely you get
return phonecalls. If the user can't comprehend a software firewall,
they get an el-cheapo Linksys WRT54G. They get told to use Firefox, and
how evil IE is. When I leave, they have the foundations for keeping a
box "clean".
How do people put up with this madness? They don't know any better.
It's all about education.
Sadly, after repeating this to a few hundred people, I usually just tell
new callers "I don't do Windows." and leave it at that. It's easier that
way. At one point it was necessary to educate Windows people about this
kind of thing. Now when I wander across people not securing their own
boxes, I consider it sheer laziness on their part, and a general waste
of time and money by everyone involved.
Anymore, creating new software that solves real world needs is far more
enjoyable than firefighting.
A decade ago, I thought firefighting was more rewarding (primarily a
function of knowing "how things worked"), but the OpenSource toolkits
just weren't around to do the things we can do today with a little well
placed code.
- Ian C. Blenke <icblenke@nks.net> <ian@blenke.com> http://ian.blenke.com/
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